Quick progress update, road wheels are painted and installed.  Body is glued together, and a basecoat of desert tan is applied. Turret is just in place for the photo.

The yucky khaki thing along the bottom of the side armor is supposed to be some canvas clothes, some kind of protection for the road wheels i assume, I thought this color would work..but I am not pleased.  It will take some major washes and drybrushing to get it up to snuff.  Glad I haven't affixed them yet.

@lostagain

Hi,
Ditto all what you just said lostagain.

And to my eye that looks quite right, the XF-61is not to dark - XF-62 would have renderd that almost black.

Good one :)

Svenne

I second that Bish.
This is just awesome!

Harold, Jack - the work you have put into this is worth every credit!

When ever in Gothenburg/Sweden PM me and drinks are on me!

Very Best Regards
Svenne 

And me again,

Since my last update:

New compressor: Check!
(family downstairs will be pleased)

New AB, Paasche Talon: Check!
(And it does not fit my std 1/8" thread, guess it is M5*0,5 same as Badger)

Tamiya XF-81: Check
(6 bottles obtained from obscure source since all main distributores in Europe are out of stock - BoB syndrom?)

And got myself a 5 pounder to drag behind the tractor :)

Party on!

With best wishes
Svenne

@Robert

1/72 ey...

Looks amazing.

Can not help you with the canvas thingy - not seen that before.

You might want to ask that question in the reguar Armour forum - lots of ppz there to guide you right.

Looking good - keep them coming!

With regards
Svenne

I've built the little Challenger from Dragon about a decade back.  I believe the canvas skirt was added during the Gulf War to keep the dust down when travelling.  Try using a Buff colour, like from Tamiya.  Follow up with a thin  dark brown wash, and dust it up a little during the weathering stage.

Svenne, thanks for that and the invite.

Harold, that continues to look good.  I'm still waiting my copies of Starmer books, and we both ordered around the same time.   Have also been meaning to ask, what did you use to measure out your paint when mixing - some kind of eye dropper tool or pipette?

regards,

Jack

jgeratic

Harold, that continues to look good.  I'm still waiting my copies of Starmer books, and we both ordered around the same time.   Have also been meaning to ask, what did you use to measure out your paint when mixing - some kind of eye dropper tool or pipette?

 

regards,

Jack 

I wanted enough paint to give the entire model at least two coats, so I started with 100 drops = 5 parts of XF-61. Then it was easy to calculate the other colour parts and by the time I had all the colors in one of the mixing bottles the bottle was full of paint, so it worked out well for me. I also used AK Interactive stainless steel shaker balls in the mixing bottle.

I am really surprised you haven't received your books yet. I got the impression Mike sent your shipment a few days before he sent mine. You might want to email him and find out when he sent them and confirm the address he used. If I haven't said so before it was great working with you on my Matador model. I would have never figured out the decals and through you I made a new friend in Mike Starmer.

Harold

Hi Harold, thanks for answering my query about the pipette -  will have to get me a few of those. 

Not concerned yet about the delay in the book order, could be just less flights being accepted here in Canada, and more stringent procedures once anything does arrive out of country.

No problem about helping out with your build, that's what we are here for.

regards,

Jack

Jack, i think your right about those skirts. But looks like someone has not listened to their instructor.

Hi Bish.. I'm guessing crews were instructed not to sleep underneath their vehicle or something else is going on in the photo?

Incidently, the boots look to be the same colour/material as the tank skirt.

regards,

Jack

Ye, we were always taught never to sleep under our vehicles. Not so risking on the ground that tank is on, but deadly on soft gound. Very possable with the boots. They were the ones we were issued with in 2003, bloody awful, like wearing cardboard. I still have mne.

Sorry guys, been away on holiday/vacation. Everyone's work looks fantastic! Looking forward to getting back to work when I get home in a week. 

I kind of like the idea of putting a sleeping soldier under the tank, anybody know of a 1/72 sleeping figure?

Put in some more work tonight, tracks are painted and installed...had to pop the body apart to do so.  Thankfully I had glued lightly to begin with on the off chance of this coming up.  Also attached the armor skirts with a newly painted canvas dust cover and the front armor assembly. 

Just some more parts to add and give a final coat of the desert sand before decalling and weathering.

Glamdring: She's coming along nicely!!!

If it's just the figure's head or feet sticking out couldn't you just use a regular figure? He'd only have to be lying down if you're going to show the whole guy- or at least it seems to me.

Believe it or not Bish, I'm almost finished with the Apache . Since it was being ornery I put it the corner and let it stew for a little while. I felt it learned it's lesson and I finished it last night. I'll take some pics tonight after I get home.

lostagain

 

Harold, that is a sensational looking Matador there. Fascinated to see how the stencils work. The colour match shows the value of all your research. And if your idea of bad news is not taking photos in the cab first…

 

Since I made a mess of the camouflage painting, but the base coat and primer were smooth I decided to try stripping the acrylic paint. I used heavy duty Easy-Off oven cleaner and sealed the model in a zip-lock bag for two-hours. Then I dipped the model in a bowl of Dawn dish soap for about 2-minutes and rinsed the oven cleaner and dish soap off under warm running water. I also used a large flat paint brush to get into small details. The result is what you see below. The oven cleaner took all the paint off down to the primer. Remember the plastic is a yellow color and the primer was an olive-green. So, what you see in the pictures below is a faded olive green primer. There was no sanding, scrubbing or abrasive of any kind. Just a large soft flat modeling paint brush. When the model was clean I dried it with my airbrush and then let it sit for several hours.

Tomorrow I will give the Matador a fresh coat of primer to cover water stains and when the primer is dry, I should be able to give the model a new S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab base coat. Now for the rest of 'Plan-B'. I have ordered two types of camouflage masking putty, AK Interactive #AK8076 and Ammo Mig #AMIG8012. The Mig Jimenez putty will take a while to get here but the AK product should be here by next Monday. I have never used masking putty, but I understand how it works and I am excited to try it on the Mid Production Matador.

Plan-B has a secondary objective. I wanted to change the canopy from all closed to partially opened, but until I messed up the paint I was not willing to take the model a part. Since the Early Type and Mid Type use the same parts I will put a new partially open canopy on the Mid Production Matador shown below.

Jack, did you ever recieve your Mike Starmer books?

Harold

Hello Harold, yes picked up books today at the post office.  My custom PE also arrived, so hope to get some bench time in shortly...

regards,

Jack

Lots more stuff nearing completion.  Some great subjects. Coming down to the wire!  

Bish,

Here it is, like the great philosphers, The Beatles once said, "with a little help from my friends"

I like chopers but rarely build 'em. Other than a few fiddly bits that kept breaking off and the mess up with the paint color, I'm done.

I never want to let Bish down so I put aside all my other bench projects to get this over the line.

Sorry the mask didn't work out Harold, glad you were able to fix it.

Very nicely done Steve, great looking chopper, thank you. Will get you addd.

I don't build many choppers either, only have 2 built. I am hopeing Airfix wil release some new tools of some of their classic British helo's.

Steve, a very good build on the helo, congrats on the completion.

regards,

Jack

Thank you guys. Other than some biplanes, that is the last and only representation of the British Army in my stash.

I need to remedy that 

modelcrazy

Thank you guys. Other than some biplanes, that is the last and only representation of the British Army in my stash.

I need to remedy that 

 

I won't argue with that. Its a pity there seem to be no kits of the army's water craft. Maybe we will see you building a tank.

Nice Apache.  I was surprised to see it's 1/72. I really like that chopper.   Great Job.  Dig the weathering/chipping on the ffar rocket pods. 

Thanks John

Thanks guys!

I laid down a wash of sepia on the Challenger on Saturday and wiped off with a wet Kleenex, then hit the panel lines and engine grates with Vallejo gray wash.  I don't know why I keep trying the gray wash, it seemingly dries invisible, maybe it works better on a gray jet or a ship. 

Yesterday I hit it with a drybrush layer of the original color to tone down and even out the brown from the wash.

We are getting there!

Hi Harold,

hate to see you going through all that troble on your Matador.

I realy like the way that last recipie of Mr. Starmer is coming out. Looks better then the first to my eye, the first mix is more like Olive Green.

Unfortunately I had been hunting for XF81 all over Europe for a couple of weeks before i checked it out and ufortunately (since I wanted a big batch) this is were I landed up:

Now I need to get hold of XF61 but at least I have enough XF81 to start my Typhoon now :)

Belive it or not but XF61 is also pretty much sold out - at least were I usually get my supply.

Best Regards
Svenne